


An Okay Kind of Mistake

by rebelmeg



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce Banner Feels, Bruce Banner Has Issues, Bruce has a fan, Gen, Kid Peter Parker, Precious Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24834400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: Bruce likes the fact that he retains his anonymity when his big green alter ego isn't making an appearance.  There is one unusual exception, however, when he comes across a young fan...
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Peter Parker
Comments: 36
Kudos: 232
Collections: Bruce Banner Bingo 2019





	An Okay Kind of Mistake

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for my Bruce Banner Bingo square U4 - "Mistakes are made, that's the fun in life."
> 
> WHICH HAS FINALLY EARNED ME A BINGO!
> 
> The lovely whenfandomscollide was my wonderful beta!

There were a lot of things Bruce didn’t like about being a part of the Avengers, most of which had to do with the Hulk. It wasn’t his teammates’ fault, not at all. He just wasn’t the kind of person to enjoy most of what came with the job. The Hulk was all violence and aggression and impulse, all of which Bruce took pains not to be. It was hard, having a double life that he was fully aware existed, but rarely had a memory of.

One thing, though, was an unexpected blessing when it came to his status as an Avenger.

When he wasn’t the Hulk, nobody gave Bruce Banner a second glance. He was utterly unremarkable, just another middle-aged guy with glasses and slowly graying hair. He could go out in public, make the odd grocery run or stop for coffee, without anybody recognizing him.

And he liked it that way.

It had been both really terrifying and kinda cool to discover that a lot of people, and little kids in particular, _loved_ the Hulk. A lot of people still hated him, and were justifiably afraid of him, but there was enough interest that amongst the other Avengers Halloween costumes at the stores in October, there was a bright green and purple costume for Hulk too. Complete with thick foam pads of comically unrealistic muscles.

“Told you.” Tony had said with just a hint of smugness when he personally delivered a box of fan mail to Bruce’s suite, topped with a basket of silly Hulk-themed nonsense like green lip balm, Hulk face masks, some action figures and other trinket toys, and a bright purple t-shirt with "HULK SMASH" printed across the front in bright green.

So. Hulk was popular. But Bruce Banner was still basically unknown outside the professional science world. Nobody stopped him on the street, nobody asked for his autograph, he had basically no public appeal at all as himself.

Except for this one time…

* * *

Bruce had been going on a walk. He didn’t much care for the crowds, but it was just over a mile to Central Park from the Avengers Tower, and he had more space there to just meander around and let his mind wander.

He had just passed a group of kids, fifth or sixth graders on a field trip by the looks of it, when one of them near the back of the group stopped dead in the middle of the path and gaped at Bruce.

“OH MY GOSH, ARE YOU DR. BANNER?!”

Bruce jumped, certainly not used to that kind of thing, when this skinny kid with light brown hair came running over. His eyes were huge, and his mouth was hanging open, and Bruce had to force himself not to step back in alarm.

“I’m Peter and I’m such a huge fan! I did a science fair experiment based on one of your papers, and I got first prize!”

“Uh,” Bruce said very eloquently, “nice to meet you?”

“You too!” The kid looked about ready to explode, he was that psyched. “I know you’re the Hulk, and I love the Hulk too, but I just… you were one of my favorite people before that ever happened.”

Bruce blinked several times, still taken aback. “Oh. That’s… thank you. Nobody has ever recognized me in public before.”

“There’s a picture of you on the wall at school, and you're in my favorite book about science! You’re one of the most influential scientists in the past _hundred_ years! We understand gamma radiation twenty times better now than we did before you did your research. You changed the entire face of that field!”

It didn’t seem possible, but the kid, Peter, was managing to get even more worked up, and Bruce suddenly had to swallow around an unexpectedly thick throat. 

Nobody, except Tony, had looked at him as anything but the placeholder for the Hulk since before the Other Guy had been created. And now there was this kid, small for his age and vibrating with excitement because he was meeting Dr. Bruce Banner.

It made something fragile and warm curl in Bruce’s chest.

“Can… can I have your autograph?!” Peter asked breathlessly, his eyes going wide again.

“Um, sure. Yeah.”

Peter dropped his backpack twice while he tried to get it open, and upended the thing in his frantic search for a writing utensil and paper.

“Sorry, kind of a mess in here, Aunt May keeps telling me I need to clean it out—oh, here we go, nope, that’s my math homework, gotta turn that in—I thought I had a pen in here, where did—AHA! Here!” He thrust the torn half sheet of paper and a pen at Bruce, apologizing as he nearly stabbed him with it. “Sorry! I’m just really excited!”

Bruce couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, and he signed the scrap of paper with a mix of pride and self-consciousness. “No problem. There you go.”

“Thank you!” The kid gushed, looked at the autograph like it held the secrets of the universe. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever held!”

“Peter!” Another kid, Asian or Pacific Islander, he was too far away to tell, was waving him over. “Come on!”

“Coming!” Peter knelt down to shovel everything back into his backpack, and Bruce grabbed a few papers that had been skittering away with the light breeze. “Thanks, Dr. Banner. It was so, so awesome to meet you! Bye!”

He was off like a shot, meeting up with the other boy and jumping up and down several times as he showed off Bruce’s autograph. 

Bruce watched them go for a minute, a little overwhelmed and stalled out, then slowly resumed his walk, his hands in his pockets as he thought about what his unexpected fan had said.

* * *

Bruce was… a lot of things. A scientist. A genius. A geek. A Hulk. A mistake.

But that day, for a little while at least… being a mistake hadn’t been a bad thing. In fact, when Bruce looked back on it, it was actually kind of fun.


End file.
